X Session Management Protocol
X Consortium Standard
Mike Wexler
Kubota Pacific Computer, Inc
X Version 11, Release 7.7
Version 1.0
Copyright © 1992, 1993, 1994, 2002 The Open Group
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X Window System is a trademark of The Open Group.
This document specifies a protocol that facilitates the management of groups of
client applications by a session manager. The session manager can cause clients
to save their state, to shut down, and to be restarted into a previously saved
state. This protocol is layered on top of the X.Org ICE protocol.
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Table of Contents
1. Acknowledgments
2. Definitions and Goals
3. Overview of the Protocol
4. Data Types
5. Protocol Setup and Message Format
6. Client Identification String
7. Protocol
8. Errors
9. State Diagrams
Client State Diagram
Session Manager State Diagram
10. Protocol Encoding
Types
Messages
11. Predefined Properties
Chapter 1. Acknowledgments
First I would like to thank the entire ICCCM and Intrinsics working groups for
the comments and suggestions. I would like to make special thanks to the
following people (in alphabetical order), Jordan Brown, Ellis Cohen, Donna
Converse, Vania Joloboff, Stuart Marks, Ralph Mor and Bob Scheifler.
Chapter 2. Definitions and Goals
The purpose of the X Session Management Protocol (XSMP) is to provide a uniform
mechanism for users to save and restore their sessions. A session is a group of
clients, each of which has a particular state. The session is controlled by a
network service called the session manager. The session manager issues commands
to its clients on behalf of the user. These commands may cause clients to save
their state or to terminate. It is expected that the client will save its state
in such a way that the client can be restarted at a later time and resume its
operation as if it had never been terminated. A client's state might include
information about the file currently being edited, the current position of the
insertion point within the file, or the start of an uncommitted transaction.
The means by which clients are restarted is unspecified by this protocol.
For purposes of this protocol, a client of the session manager is defined as a
connection to the session manager. A client is typically, though not
necessarily, a process running an application program connected to an X Window
System display. However, a client may be connected to more than one X display
or not be connected to any X displays at all.
This protocol is layered on top of the X Consortium's ICE protocol and relies
on the ICE protocol to handle connection management and authentication.
Chapter 3. Overview of the Protocol
Clients use XSMP to register themselves with the session manager (SM). When a
client starts up, it should connect to the SM. The client should remain
connected for as long as it runs. A client may resign from the session by
issuing the proper protocol messages before disconnecting. Termination of the
connection without notice will be taken as an indication that the client died
unexpectedly.
Clients are expected to save their state in such a way as to allow multiple
instantiations of themselves to be managed independently. A unique value called
a client-ID is provided by the protocol for the purpose of disambiguating
multiple instantiations of clients. Clients may use this ID, for example, as
part of a filename in which to store the state for a particular instantiation.
The client-ID should be saved as part of the command used to restart this
client (the RestartCommand) so that the client will retain the same ID after it
is restarted. Certain small pieces of state might also be stored in the
RestartCommand. For example, an X11 client might place a '-twoWindow' option in
its RestartCommand to indicate that it should start up in two window mode when
it is restarted.
The client finds the network address of the SM in a system-dependent way. On
POSIX systems an environment variable called SESSION_MANAGER will contain a
list of network IDs. Each id will contain the transport name followed by a
slash and the (transport-specific) address. A TCP/IP address would look like
this:
tcp/hostname:portnumber
where the hostname is a fully qualified domain name. A Unix Domain address
looks like this:
local/hostname:path
A DECnet address would look like this:
decnet/nodename::objname
If multiple network IDs are specified, they should be separated by commas.
Rationale
There was much discussion over whether the XSMP protocol should use X as the
transport protocol or whether it should use its own independent transport. It
was decided that it would use an independent protocol for several reasons.
First, the Session Manager should be able to manage programs that do not
maintain an X connection. Second, the X protocol is not appropriate to use as a
general-purpose transport protocol. Third, a session might span multiple
displays.
The protocol is connection based, because there is no other way for the SM to
determine reliably when clients terminate.
It should be noted that this protocol introduces another single point of
failure into the system. Although it is possible for clients to continue
running after the SM has exited, this will probably not be the case in normal
practice. Normally the program that starts the SM will consider the session to
be terminated when the SM exits (either normally or abnormally).
To get around this would require some sort of rendezvous server that would also
introduce a single point of failure. In the absence of a generally available
rendezvous server, XSMP is kept simple in the hopes of making simple reliable
SMs.
Some clients may wish to manage the programs they start. For example, a mail
program could start a text editor for editing the text of a mail message. A
client that does this is a session manager itself; it should supply the clients
it starts with the appropriate connection information (i.e., the
SESSION_MANAGER environment variable) that specifies a connection to itself
instead of to the top level session manager.
Each client has associated with it a list of properties. A property set by one
client is not visible to any other client. These properties are used for the
client to inform the SM of the client's current state. When a client initially
connects to the SM, there are no properties set.
Chapter 4. Data Types
XSMP messages contain several types of data. Both the SM and the client always
send messages in their native byte order. Thus, both sides may need to
byte-swap the messages received. The need to do byte-swapping is determined at
run-time by the ICE protocol.
If an invalid value is specified for a field of any of the enumerated types, a
BadValue error message must be sent by the receiver of the message to the
sender of the message.
┌──────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Type Name │Description │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│BOOL │False or True │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│INTERACT_STYLE│None Errors or Any │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│DIALOG_TYPE │Error or Normal │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│SAVE_TYPE │Global Local or Both │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│CARD8 │a one-byte unsigned integer │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│CARD16 │a two-byte unsigned integer │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│CARD32 │a four-byte unsigned integer │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ARRAY8 │a sequence of CARD8s │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│LISTofARRAY8 │a sequence of ARRAY8s │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│PROPERTY │a property name (an ARRAY8), a type name, and a value of that │
│ │type │
├──────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│LISTofPROPERTY│a counted collection of PROPERTYs. │
└──────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Chapter 5. Protocol Setup and Message Format
To start the XSMP protocol, the client sends the server an ICE ProtocolSetup
message. All XSMP messages are in the standard ICE message format. The
message's major opcode is assigned to XSMP by ICE at run-time. The different
parties (client and SM) may be assigned different major opcodes for XSMP. Once
assigned, all XSMP messages issued by this party will use the same major
opcode. The message's minor opcode specifies which protocol message this
message contains.
Chapter 6. Client Identification String
A client ID is a string of XPCS characters encoded in ISO Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1).
No null characters are allowed in this string. The client ID string is used in
the RegisterClient and RegisterClientReply messages.
Client IDs consist of the pieces described below. The ID is formed by
concatenating the pieces in sequence, without separator characters. All pieces
are padded on the left with '0' characters so as to fill the specified length.
Decimal numbers are encoded using the characters '0' through '9', and
hexadecimal numbers using the characters '0' through '9' and 'A' through 'F'.
• Version. This is currently the character '1'.
• Address type and address. The address type will be one of
'1' a 4-byte IPv4 address encoded as 8 hexadecimal digits
'2' a 6-byte DECNET address encoded as 12 hexadecimal digits
'6' a 16-byte IPv6 address encoded as 32 hexadecimal digits
The address is the one of the network addresses of the machine where the
session manager (not the client) is running. For example, the IP address
198.112.45.11 would be encoded as the string "QC6702D0B".
• Time stamp. A 13-digit decimal number specifying the number of milliseconds
since 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970.
• Process-ID type and process-ID. The process-ID type will be one of
'1' a POSIX process-ID encoded as a 10-digit decimal number.
The process-ID is the process-ID of the session manager, not of a client.
• Sequence number. This is a four-digit decimal number. It is incremented
every time the session manager creates an ID. After reaching "Q9999" it
wraps to "Q0000".
Rationale
Once a client ID has been assigned to the client, the client keeps this ID
indefinitely. If the client is terminated and restarted, it will be
reassigned the same ID. It is desirable to be able to pass client IDs
around from machine to machine, from user to user, and from session manager
to session manager, while retaining the identity of the client. This,
combined with the indefinite persistence of client IDs, means that client
IDs need to be globally unique. The construction specified above will
ensure that any client ID created by any user, session manager, and machine
will be different from any other.
Chapter 7. Protocol
The protocol consists of a sequence of messages as described below. Each
message type is specified by an ICE minor opcode. A given message type is sent
either from a client to the session manager or from the session manager to a
client; the appropriate direction is listed with each message's description.
For each message type, the set of valid responses and possible error messages
are listed. The ICE severity is given in parentheses following each error
class.
RegisterClient [Client → SM]
previous-ID: ARRAY8
Valid Responses: RegisterClientReply
Possible Errors: BadValue (CanContinue)
The client must send this message to the SM to register the client's existence.
If a client is being restarted from a previous session, the previous-ID field
must contain the client ID from the previous session. For new clients,
previous-ID should be of zero length.
If previous-ID is not valid, the SM will send a BadValue error message to the
client. At this point the SM reverts to the register state and waits for
another RegisterClient The client should then send a RegisterClient with a null
previous-ID field.
RegisterClientReply [Client ← SM]
client-ID: ARRAY8
The client-ID specifies a unique identification for this client. If the client
had specified an ID in the previous-ID field of the RegisterClient message,
client-ID will be identical to the previously specified ID. If previous-ID was
null, client-ID will be a unique ID freshly generated by the SM. The client-ID
format is specified in section 6.
If the client didn't supply a previous-ID field to the RegisterClient message,
the SM must send a SaveYourself message with type = Local, shutdown = False,
interact-style = None, and fast = False immediately after the
RegisterClientReply The client should respond to this like any other
SaveYourself message.
SaveYourself [Client ← SM]
type: SAVE_TYPE
shutdown: BOOL
interact-style: INTERACT_STYLE
fast: BOOL
Valid Responses:
SetProperties
DeleteProperties
GetProperties
SaveYourselfDone
SaveYourselfPhase2Request
InteractRequest
The SM sends this message to a client to ask it to save its state. The client
writes a state file, if necessary, and, if necessary, uses SetProperties to
inform the SM of how to restart it and how to discard the saved state. During
this process it can, if allowed by interact-style, request permission to
interact with the user by sending an InteractRequest message. After the state
has been saved, or if it cannot be successfully saved, and the properties are
appropriately set, the client sends a SaveYourselfDone message. If the client
wants to save additional information after all the other clients have finished
changing their own state, the client should send SaveYourselfPhase2Request
instead of SaveYourselfDone The client must then freeze interaction with the
user and wait until it receives a SaveComplete Die or a ShutdownCancelled
message.
If interact-style is None the client must not interact with the user while
saving state. If the interact-style is Errors the client may interact with the
user only if an error condition arises. If interact-style is Any then the
client may interact with the user for any purpose. This is done by sending an
InteractRequest message. The SM will send an Interact message to each client
that sent an InteractRequest The client must postpone all interaction until it
gets the Interact message. When the client is done interacting it should send
the SM an InteractDone message. The InteractRequest message can be sent any
time after a SaveYourself and before a SaveYourselfDone
Unusual circumstances may dictate multiple interactions. The client may
initiate as many InteractRequest - Interact - InteractDone sequences as it
needs before it sends SaveYourselfDone
When a client receives SaveYourself and has not yet responded
SaveYourselfDone to a previous SaveYourself it must send a
SaveYourselfDone and may then begin responding as appropriate to the newly
received SaveYourself
The type field specifies the type of information that should be saved: Global
Local or Both The Local type indicates that the application must update the
properties to reflect its current state, send a SaveYourselfDone and
continue. Specifically it should save enough information to restore the state
as seen by the user of this client. It should not affect the state as seen by
other users. The Global type indicates that the user wants the client to commit
all of its data to permanent, globally-accessible storage. Both indicates that
the client should do both of these. If Both is specified, the client should
first commit the data to permanent storage before updating its SM properties.
Examples
If a word processor was sent a SaveYourself with a type of Local it could
create a temporary file that included the current contents of the file, the
location of the cursor, and other aspects of the current editing session. It
would then update its RestartCommand property with enough information to find
the temporary file, and its DiscardCommand with enough information to remove
it.
If a word processor was sent a SaveYourself with a type of Global it would
simply save the currently edited file.
If a word processor was sent a SaveYourself with a type of Both it would first
save the currently edited file. It would then create a temporary file with
information such as the current position of the cursor and what file is being
edited. It would then update its RestartCommand property with enough
information to find the temporary file, and its DiscardCommand with enough
information to remove it.
Once the SM has send SaveYourself to a client, it can't send another
SaveYourself to that client until the client either responds with a
SaveYourselfDone or the SM sends a ShutdownCancelled
Advice to Implementors
If the client stores local any state in a file or similar "external" storage,
it must create a distinct copy in response to each SaveYourself message. It
must not simply refer to a previous copy, because the SM may discard that
previous saved state using a DiscardCommand without knowing that it is needed
for the new checkpoint.
The shutdown field specifies whether the system is being shut down.
Rationale
The interaction may be different depending on whether or not shutdown is set.
The client must save and then must prevent interaction until it receives a
SaveComplete Die or a ShutdownCancelled because anything the user does after
the save will be lost.
The fast field specifies whether or not the client should save its state as
quickly as possible. For example, if the SM knows that power is about to fail,
it should set the fast field to True.
SaveYourselfPhase2 [Client → SM]
Valid Responses:
SetProperties
DeleteProperties
GetProperties
SaveYourselfDone
InteractRequest
The SM sends this message to a client that has previously sent a
SaveYourselfPhase2Request message. This message informs the client that all
other clients are in a fixed state and this client can save state that is
associated with other clients.
Rationale
Clients that manager other clients (window managers, workspace managers, etc)
need to know when all clients they are managing are idle, so that the manager
can save state related to each of the clients without being concerned with that
state changing.
The client writes a state file, if necessary, and, if necessary, uses
SetProperties to inform the SM of how to restart it and how to discard the
saved state. During this process it can request permission to interact with the
user by sending an InteractRequest message. This should only be done if an
error occurs that requires user interaction to resolve. After the state has
been saved, or if it cannot be successfully saved, and the properties are
appropriately set, the client sends a SaveYourselfDone message.
SaveYourselfRequest [Client → SM]
type: SAVE_TYPE
shutdown: BOOL
interact-style: INTERACT_STYLE
fast: BOOL
global: BOOL
Valid Responses: SaveYourself
An application sends this to the SM to request a checkpoint. When the SM
receives this request it may generate a SaveYourself message in response and it
may leave the fields intact.
Example
A vendor of a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) might include an SM client
that would monitor the status of the UPS and generate a fast shutdown if the
power is about to be lost.
If global is set to True then the resulting SaveYourself should be sent to all
applications. If global is set to False then the resulting SaveYourself should
be sent to the application that sent the SaveYourselfRequest
InteractRequest [Client → SM]
dialog-type: DIALOG_TYPE
Valid Responses: Interact ShutdownCancelled
Possible Errors: BadState (CanContinue)
During a checkpoint or session-save operation, only one client at a time might
be granted the privilege of interacting with the user. The InteractRequest
message causes the SM to emit an Interact message at some later time if the
shutdown is not cancelled by another client first.
The dialog-type field specifies either Errors indicating that the client wants
to start an error dialog or Normal meaning the client wishes to start a
non-error dialog.
Interact [Client ← SM]
Valid Responses: InteractDone
This message grants the client the privilege of interacting with the user. When
the client is done interacting with the user it must send an InteractDone
message to the SM unless a shutdown cancel is received.
Advice to Implementors
If a client receives a ShutdownCancelled after receiving an Interact message,
but before sending a InteractDone the client should abort the interaction and
send a SaveYourselfDone
InteractDone [Client → SM]
cancel-shutdown: BOOL
Valid Responses: ShutdownCancelled
This message is used by a client to notify the SM that it is done interacting.
Setting the cancel-shutdown field to True indicates that the user has requested
that the entire shutdown be cancelled. Cancel-shutdown may only be True if the
corresponding SaveYourself message specified True for the shutdown field and
Any or Errors for the interact-style field. Otherwise, cancel-shutdown must be
False.
SaveYourselfDone [Client → SM]
success: BOOL
Valid Responses:
SaveComplete
Die
ShutdownCancelled
This message is sent by a client to indicate that all of the properties
representing its state have been updated. After sending SaveYourselfDone the
client must wait for a SaveComplete ShutdownCancelled or Die message before
changing its state. If the SaveYourself operation was successful, then the
client should set the success field to True otherwise the client should set it
to False.
Example
If a client tries to save its state and runs out of disk space, it should
return False in the success field of the SaveYourselfDone message.
SaveYourselfPhase2Request [Client → SM]
Valid Responses:
ShutdownCancelled
SaveYourselfPhase2
This message is sent by a client to indicate that it needs to be informed when
all the other clients are quiescent, so it can continue its state.
Die [Client ← SM]
Valid Responses: ConnectionClosed
When the SM wants a client to die it sends a Die message. Before the client
dies it responds by sending a ConnectionClosed message and may then close its
connection to the SM at any time.
SaveComplete [Client → SM]
Valid Responses:
When the SM is done with a checkpoint, it will send each of the clients a
SaveComplete message. The client is then free to change its state.
ShutdownCancelled [Client ← SM]
The shutdown currently in process has been aborted. The client can now continue
as if the shutdown had never happened. If the client has not sent
SaveYourselfDone yet, the client can either abort the save and send
SaveYourselfDone with the success field set to False or it can continue with
the save and send a SaveYourselfDone with the success field set to reflect the
outcome of the save.
ConnectionClosed [Client → SM]
reason: LISTofARRAY8
Specifies that the client has decided to terminate. It should be immediately
followed by closing the connection.
The reason field specifies why the client is resigning from the session. It is
encoded as an array of Compound Text strings. If the resignation is expected by
the user, there will typically be zero ARRAY8s here. But if the client
encountered an unexpected fatal error, the error message (which might otherwise
be printed on stderr on a POSIX system) should be forwarded to the SM here, one
ARRAY8 per line of the message. It is the responsibility of the SM to display
this reason to the user.
After sending this message, the client must not send any additional XSMP
messages to the SM.
Advice to Implementors
If additional messages are received, they should be discarded.
Rationale
The reason for sending the ConnectionClosed message before actually closing the
connections is that some transport protocols will not provide immediate
notification of connection closure.
SetProperties [Client → SM]
properties: LISTofPROPERTY
Sets the specified properties to the specified values. Existing properties not
specified in the SetProperties message are unaffected. Some properties have
predefined semantics. See section 11, “Predefined Properties.”
The protocol specification recommends that property names used for properties
not defined by the standard should begin with an underscore. To prevent
conflicts among organizations, additional prefixes should be chosen (for
example, _KPC_FAST_SAVE_OPTION). The organizational prefixes should be
registered with the X Registry. The XSMP reserves all property names not
beginning with an underscore for future use.
DeleteProperties [Client → SM]
property-names: LISTofARRAY8
Removes the named properties.
GetProperties [Client → SM]
Valid Responses: GetPropertiesReply
Requests that the SM respond with the values of all the properties for this
client.
GetPropertiesReply [Client ← SM]
values: LISTofPROPERTY
This message is sent in reply to a GetProperties message and includes the
values of all the properties.
Chapter 8. Errors
When the receiver of a message detects an error condition, the receiver sends
an ICE error message to the sender. There are only two types of errors that are
used by the XSMP: BadValue and BadState These are both defined in the ICE
protocol.
Any message received out-of-sequence will generate a BadState error message.
Chapter 9. State Diagrams
Table of Contents
Client State Diagram
Session Manager State Diagram
These state diagrams are designed to cover all actions of both the client and
the SM.
Client State Diagram
start:
ICE protocol setup complete → register
register:
send RegisterClient → collect-id
collect-id:
receive RegisterClientReply → idle
shutdown-cancelled:
send SaveYourselfDone → idle
idle: [Undoes any freeze of interaction with user.]
receive Die → die
receive SaveYourself → freeze-interaction
send GetProperties → idle
receive GetPropertiesReply → idle
send SetProperties → idle
send DeleteProperties → idle
send ConnectionClosed → connection-closed
send SaveYourselfRequest → idle
die:
send ConnectionClosed → connection-closed
freeze-interaction:
freeze interaction with user → save-yourself
save-yourself:
receive ShutdownCancelled → shutdown-cancelled
send SetProperties → save-yourself
send DeleteProperties → save-yourself
send GetProperties → save-yourself
receive GetPropertiesReply → save-yourself
send InteractRequest → interact-request
send SaveYourselfPhase2Request → waiting-for-phase2
save-yourself:
if shutdown mode:
send SaveYourselfDone → save-yourself-done
otherwise:
send SaveYourselfDone → idle
waiting-for-phase2:
receive ShutdownCancelled → shutdown-cancelled
receive SaveYourselfPhase2 → phase2
phase2:
receive ShutdownCancelled → shutdown-cancelled
send SetProperties → save-yourself
send DeleteProperties → save-yourself
send GetProperties → save-yourself
receive GetPropertiesReply → save-yourself
send InteractRequest → interact-request (errors only)
if shutdown mode:
send SaveYourselfDone → save-yourself-done
otherwise:
send SaveYourselfDone → idle
interact-request:
receive Interact → interact
receive ShutdownCancelled → shutdown-cancelled
interact:
send InteractDone → save-yourself
receive ShutdownCancelled → shutdown-cancelled
save-yourself-done: (changing state is forbidden)
receive SaveComplete → idle
receive Die → die
receive ShutdownCancelled → idle
connection-closed:
client stops participating in session
Session Manager State Diagram
start:
receive ProtocolSetup → protocol-setup
protocol-setup:
send ProtocolSetupReply → register
register:
receive RegisterClient → acknowledge-register
acknowledge-register:
send RegisterClientReply → idle
idle:
receive SetProperties → idle
receive DeleteProperties → idle
receive ConnectionClosed → start
receive GetProperties → get-properties
receive SaveYourselfRequest → save-yourself
send SaveYourself → saving-yourself
save-yourself:
send SaveYourself → saving-yourself
get-properties:
send GetPropertiesReply → idle
saving-get-properties:
send GetPropertiesReply → saving-yourself
saving-yourself:
receive InteractRequest → saving-yourself
send Interact → saving-yourself
send ShutdownCancelled → idle
receive InteractDone → saving-yourself
receive SetProperties → saving-yourself
receive DeleteProperties → saving-yourself
receive GetProperties → saving-get-properties
receive SaveYourselfPhase2Request → start-phase2
receive SaveYourselfDone → save-yourself-done
start-phase2:
If all clients have sent either SaveYourselfPhase2Request or SaveYourselfDone:
send SaveYourselfPhase2 → phase2
else
→ saving-yourself
phase2:
receive InteractRequest → saving-yourself
send Interact → saving-yourself
send ShutdownCancelled → idle
receive InteractDone → saving-yourself
receive SetProperties → saving-yourself
receive DeleteProperties → saving-yourself
receive GetProperties → saving-get-properties
receive SaveYourselfDone → save-yourself-done
save-yourself-done:
If all clients are saved:
If shutting down:
send Die → die
otherwise
send SaveComplete → idle
If some clients are not saved:
→ saving-yourself
die:
SM stops accepting connections
Chapter 10. Protocol Encoding
Table of Contents
Types
Messages
Types
BOOL
0 False
1 True
INTERACT_STYLE
0 None
1 Errors
2 Any
DIALOG_TYPE
0 Error
1 Normal
SAVE_TYPE
0 Global
1 Local
2 Both
ARRAY8
4 CARD32 length
n ListofCARD8, the array p = pad (4 + n, 8)
2 Both
LISTofARRAY8
4 CARD32 count
4 unused
a ARRAY8 first array
b ARRAY8 second array
.
.
.
q ARRAY8 last array
PROPERTY
a ARRAY8 name
b ARRAY8 type (XPCS encoded in Latin-1, case sensitive)
c LISTofARRAY8 values
LISTofPROPERTY
4 CARD32 count
4 unused
a PROPERTY first property
b PROPERTY second property
.
.
.
q PROPERTY last property
Messages
XSMP is a sub-protocol of ICE. The major opcode is assigned at run-time by ICE
and is represented here by '?'.
To start the XSMP protocol, the client sends the server an ICE ProtocolSetup
message. The protocol-name field should be specified as "XSMP", the major
version of the protocol is 1, the minor version is 0. These values may change
if the protocol is revised. The minor version number will be incremented if the
change is compatible, otherwise the major version number will be incremented.
In ProtocolReply message sent by the session manager, the XSMP protocol defines
the vendor parameter as product identification of the session manager, and
defines the release parameter as the software release identification of the
session manager. The session manager should supply this information in the ICE
ProtocolReply message.
RegisterClient
1 ? XSMP
1 1 opcode
2 unused
4 a/8 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
a ARRAY8 previous-ID
RegisterClientReply
1 ? XSMP
1 2 opcode
2 unused
4 a/8 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
a ARRAY8 client-ID
SaveYourself
1 ? XSMP
1 3 opcode
2 unused
4 1 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
1 SAVE_TYPE type
1 BOOL shutdown
1 INTERACT_STYLE interact-style
1 BOOL fast
4 unused
SaveYourselfRequest
1 ? XSMP
1 4 opcode
2 unused
4 1 length of remainning data in 8-byte units
1 SAVE_TYPE type
1 BOOL shutdown
1 INTERACT_STYLE interact-style
1 BOOL fast
3 unused
InteractRequest
1 ? XSMP
1 5 opcode
1 DIALOG_TYPE dialog type
1 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
Interact
1 ? XSMP
1 6 opcode
2 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
InteractDone
1 ? XSMP
1 7 opcode
1 BOOL cancel-shutdown
1 unused
InteractDone
1 ? XSMP
1 7 opcode
1 BOOL cancel-shutdown
1 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
SaveYourselfDone
1 ? XSMP
1 8 opcode
1 BOOL success
1 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
Die
1 ? XSMP
1 9 opcode
1 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
ShutdownCancelled
1 ? XSMP
1 10 opcode
2 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
ConnectionClosed
1 ? XSMP
1 11 opcode
2 unused
4 a/8 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
a LISTofARRAY8 reason
SetProperties
1 ? XSMP
1 12 opcode
2 unused
4 a/8 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
a LISTofPROPERTY properties
DeleteProperties
1 ? XSMP
1 13 opcode
2 unused
4 a/8 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
a LISTofPROPERTY properties
GetProperties
1 ? XSMP
1 14 opcode
2 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
GetPropertiesReply
1 ? XSMP
1 15 opcode
2 unused
4 a/8 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
a LISTofPROPERTY properties
SaveYourselfPhase2Request
1 ? XSMP
1 16 opcode
2 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
SaveYourselfPhase2
1 ? XSMP
1 17 opcode
2 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
SaveComplete
1 ? XSMP
1 18 opcode
2 unused
4 0 length of remaining data in 8-byte units
Chapter 11. Predefined Properties
All property values are stored in a LISTofARRAY8. If the type of the property
is CARD8, the value is stored as a LISTofARRAY8 with one ARRAY8 that is one
byte long. That single byte contains the CARD8. If the type of the property is
ARRAY8, the value is stored in the first element of a single element
LISTofARRAY8.
The required properties must be set each time a client connects with the SM.
The properties must be set after the client sends RegisterClient and before the
client sends SaveYourselfDone Otherwise, the behavior of the session manager is
not defined.
Clients may set, get, and delete nonstandard properties. The lifetime of stored
properties does not extend into subsequent sessions.
┌────────────────┬───────────┬────────────┬─────────┐
│Name │Type │Posix Type │Required?│
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│CloneCommand │OS-specific│LISTofARRAY8│Yes │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│CurrentDirectory│OS-specific│ARRAY8 │No │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│DiscardCommand │OS-specific│LISTofARRAY8│No* │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│Environment │OS-specific│LISTofARRAY8│No │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│ProcessID │OS-specific│ARRAY8 │No │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│Program │OS-specific│ARRAY8 │Yes │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│RestartCommand │OS-specific│LISTofARRAY8│Yes │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│ResignCommand │OS-specific│LISTofARRAY8│No │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│RestartStyleHint│CARD8 │CARD8 │No │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│ShutdownCommand │OS-specific│LISTofARRAY8│No │
├────────────────┼───────────┼────────────┼─────────┤
│UserID │ARRAY8 │ARRAY8 │Yes │
└────────────────┴───────────┴────────────┴─────────┘
* Required if any state is stored in an external repository (e.g., state file).
This is like the RestartCommand except it restarts a copy of
CloneCommand the application. The only difference is that the application
doesn't supply its client id at register time. On POSIX
systems the type should be a LISTofARRAY8.
On POSIX-based systems specifies the value of the current
CurrentDirectory directory that needs to be set up prior to starting the
program and should be of type ARRAY8.
The discard command contains a command that when delivered to
the host that the client is running on (determined from the
connection), will cause it to discard any information about
DiscardCommand the current state. If this command is not specified, the SM
will assume that all of the client's state is encoded in the
RestartCommand On POSIX systems the type should be
LISTofARRAY8.
On POSIX based systems, this will be of type LISTofARRAY8
Environment where the ARRAY8s alternate between environment variable name
and environment variable value.
This specifies an OS-specific identifier for the process. On
ProcessID POSIX systems this should of type ARRAY8 and contain the
return value of getpid() turned into a Latin-1 (decimal)
string.
The name of the program that is running. On POSIX systems this
Program should be the first parameter passed to execve and should be
of type ARRAY8.
The restart command contains a command that when delivered to
the host that the client is running on (determined from the
connection), will cause the client to restart in its current
RestartCommand state. On POSIX-based systems this is of type LISTofARRAY8 and
each of the elements in the array represents an element in the
argv array. This restart command should ensure that the client
restarts with the specified client-ID.
A client that sets the RestartStyleHint to RestartAnyway uses
this property to specify a command that undoes the effect of
the client and removes any saved state.
Example
ResignCommand
A user runs xmodmap. xmodmap registers with the SM, sets
RestartStyleHint to RestartAnyway and then terminates. In
order to allow the SM (at the user's request) to undo this,
xmodmap would register a ResignCommand that undoes the
effects of the xmodmap.
If the RestartStyleHint property is present, it will contain
the style of restarting the client prefers. If this flag isn't
specified, RestartIfRunning is assumed. The possible values
are as follows:
┌───────────────────┬─────┐
│Name │Value│
├───────────────────┼─────┤
│RestartIfRunning │0 │
├───────────────────┼─────┤
│RestartAnyway │1 │
├───────────────────┼─────┤
│RestartImmediately │2 │
├───────────────────┼─────┤
│RestartNever │3 │
└───────────────────┴─────┘
The RestartIfRunning style is used in the usual case. The
client should be restarted in the next session if it is
connected to the session manager at the end of the current
session.
The RestartAnyway style is used to tell the SM that the
application should be restarted in the next session even if it
exits before the current session is terminated. It should be
noted that this is only a hint and the SM will follow the
policies specified by its users in determining what
applications to restart.
RestartStyleHint Rationale
This can be specified by a client which supports (as
MS-Windows clients do) a means for the user to indicate while
exiting that restarting is desired. It can also be used for
clients that spawn other clients and then go away, but which
want to be restarted.
A client that uses RestartAnyway should also set the
ResignCommand and ShutdownCommand properties to commands that
undo the state of the client after it exits.
The RestartImmediately style is like RestartAnyway but in
addition, the client is meant to run continuously. If the
client exits, the SM should try to restart it in the current
session.
Advice to Implementors
It would be wise to sanity-check the frequency which which
RestartImmediately clients are restarted, to avoid a sick
client being restarted continuously.
The RestartNever style specifies that the client does not wish
to be restarted in the next session.
Advice to Implementors
This should be used rarely, if at all. It will cause the
client to be silently left out of sessions when they are
restarted and will probably be confusing to users.
This command is executed at shutdown time to clean up after a
client that is no longer running but retained its state by
setting RestartStyleHint to RestartAnyway The command must not
remove any saved state as the client is still part of the
session.
ShutdownCommand Example
A client is run at start up time that turns on a camera. This
client then exits. At session shutdown, the user wants the
camera turned off. This client would set the
RestartStyleHint to RestartAnyway and would register a
ShutdownCommand that would turn off the camera.
Specifies the user's ID. On POSIX-based systems this will
UserID contain the the user's name (the pw_name field of struct
passwd).
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